Exclusive reliance on videoconferencing technology affordances and its implications for emotion management during organizational change

Purpose– Active emotion management might be a way to steer change processes in a positive way for all the stakeholders involved. This study explores the implications of the exclusive and persistent use of videoconferencing (VC) affordances on the emotion regulation activity of middle managers during organizational change. This is done as emotions are being brought into the self- and inter-actions of the sociomaterial “space between” that now involves the deployment of technology to cope with the specific demands of the interactive spaces. Design/methodology/approach–Thisin-depthqualitativestudy explorestheimplicationsthat derivefrom the intersection between VC affordances and the emotion regulation activity of middle managers by looking at the agency enacted in the “space between” the human and nonhuman elements of assemblages. Findings– The author discusses how the persistent intersection between VC technology affordances, such as visibility, bandwidth, etc., and the space and timedimensionsoftherelational“space between”isexperiencedas anobstacle to thetimelyandaccuratedevelopmentofco-respondingduringtheemotionregulationstepsofself presentation and appraisal of others’ emotions. The findings shed light on the implications for the ability of middle managers to prompt a positive cognitive reappraisal of change events. Originality/value– No research has investigated the implications for emotion management during disruptive events such as organizational change deriving from the intersection between emotional responsiveness and technology affordances. The sociomaterial conceptualization presented here contributes to integrating the “space between” into the emotion regulation perspective, as this space becomes co-constitutive of the overall process of emotion regulation in the digital age.